Framing a love photo

When we have a great photo, we want to showcase it the best way possible and framing a photo is one way to help the viewer focus on that important element of a graphic project. Let's look at 4 ways you can frame a love photo.

Masking

There are many masks available. Some are made for Paintshop Pro and have a .pspmask extension, but you can also find other masks that were meant for other programs. Either way, you can usually use them in PSP. Masks are black and white designs where the black will block the image from showing through and the white will let you see it.

If the area you want to show is black, you can always invert the mask data and you can get this result:

If you can't find the perfect mask for your photo, you can easily create it with black, white and grey areas. Once you save it, you can reuse it over and over again.

Paper frame

You might have some particular papers that you would want to use, and you can cut them out of papers. Once you have opened the paper you want to use, start with a preset shape (you can find nice heart shapes) and draw it at least as large as you will need with a thick stroke and no fill (the color of the stroke does not matter).

Then, go to Selection > From vector object (which will create a nice soft edge selection all around that shape), hide the vector layer, and activate the bottom layer (the black in this case).

Then, it is just a matter of copying this selected area, and copying it onto your photo.

Who said that the frame had to be straight? or that the photo has to fit only inside? This is where you can be creative!

Picture tubes

There are various picture tubes available for Paintshop Pro. There are strings, beads, chains, ropes, beads and more. Many of them can be used to create a shape that will frame your photo or the part of the photo you want to accent. You can place picture tubes freehand, or you can use a preset shape and a script. Let's see how we can simply draw a heart, freehand using some sprinkles.

Photo on photo

Another way to frame a photo would be to use a selection of some kind and adjust the "un-focussed" section to make it less important. This can be done with a number of adjustments, whether it is the color, the sharpness, or any other effect available in Paintshop Pro.

Once a selection is set, you can invert the selection and remove the color by dropping the color saturation down to 0, and then decrease the brightness to make the rest of the photo darker, giving a bright look to the subject.

Of course, you can also create frames by doodling with your paintbrush tool, by using a ready-made frame, or cutting the photo and placing it on a mat. There are definitely many other ways you can "frame" a love photo, and those tips can also apply to any other photo. I used the love photos since it was easy to pick a shape for them (the heart) but it is not limited to this theme or this shape either.

When digital scrapbooking with Paintshop Pro, you have so many tools available and best of all, you can't really make any major mistake: you can always undo and redo something else. Your photos will not be damaged!

Have you used one of those tips to frame a love photo? Share a link in the comments below.